Research Director : Prof. Betsy Paul C.

Director's Message

Research is an arduous task. It requires sustained effort, dedicated time and focussed mental
application. It is individual as well as collective or (to apply T.S. Eliot’s metaphor on a creative
writer’s contribution to a creative researcher’s) it is individual talent standing tall upon tradition.
And, traditions in scholarship are temporal and spatial. Innovative contributions take shape
when historically accumulated and contextually engaged discourses interact creatively in
individual minds. The Research Centre in English at St. Aloysius College aspires to foster a
congenial space for such engagements and interactions.
With its aspirational vision to make the Centre into a premier research Centre of the nation, St.
Aloysius College Research Centre in English (SACREL) invokes researchers to generate
discoveries that improve human life and lived experiences. Our tools and analyses are rooted in
the domain of studies in English language and literature, yet our findings can aspire to have
interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary dimensions.
The Centre has so far produced 10 PhDs with two thesis submissions awaiting evaluation
reports. Our researchers so far have been and are engaged in looking into multiple perspectives
of language and literary studies which in itself is commendable for a comparatively new
research centre. At the same time, this is a phase and time in our growth when we need to
stabilize our focus and build up quality. A similarity in focus from where diversity can take roots
will help us learn in a more fruitful manner.
For the last few years, our Centre has been organizing Seminars and Workshops on
international and national levels based on literary studies in ethics and sustainability. Some of
our awarded PhD theses have worked on climate change fiction and on ecological criticism.
Moreover, our institute being situated on the ecologically delicate Ramsay site offers a scope for
studies based on climate change and sustainable development. Research associations with the
Kole Wetland Studies Centre of the college too can be thought of. The world today is aging fast,
and studies related to literary gerontology, etc. which are gaining greater significance too are
engaged with at the Centre.
Back in 2020, as Covid pandemic was gripping and paralyzing normal human mobility and
affecting mental well being, the English Department had thought of a national level online
performance poetry competition called “Resilience” to inspire and enliven the minds of the
students. The department is ever committed towards the idea of bettering human living
experience by disseminating insights from literary imaginaries. The National level Best
Research Paper Award entitled “Towards a Better Tomorrow,” initiated by the Centre in 2024,
too, is envisioned based on this commitment.
Most of the research produced by our Centre is around these (or related and relatable) themes.
For example, the thesis on Amiri Baraka and racism in his work or another on agency in
Malayalam horror films may not look as though they are directly related with the above themes.
At the same time, the 5 th and 10 th UN SDGs invoke gender equality and reduced inequalities

respectively as essential for sustainable development. SACREL, with its commitment to
discover and disseminate sustainable imaginaries from literary creations, aspires to produce
deeper insights in these domains.
Research is not to be kept bound in books (or locked in ebooks) confined to libraries. SACREL
has initiated a talk series, Chrysalis, to disseminate the newest domains of research in literary
studies to students, researchers, faculty and the general public. In its third year now, Chrysalis
III, has opened its doors to everyone and is a national level program with presenters and
participants from all parts of India. It is also a commemorative program remembering the dear
departed teaching staff of the department of English and the Research Centre.
2024 is bringing in new supervisors and researchers to the Centre and let us all work together
for the exciting times ahead keeping steady on our roots and aiming at the stars.